Opportunity awaits for the financial industry at Money20/20 China

Friday 15 June 2018 | 10:15 AM
CET

Money20/20 China is the newest addition to the Money20/20 global portfolio of destination events.

As China has become one of the world’s biggest fintech markets, Money20/20 China gives international businesses an unrivalled opportunity to discover how Chinese leaders achieve such phenomenal success and connect with the most senior players from across the industry.

On the last day of Money20/20 Europe, which took place in Amsterdam, we sat with Rebecca Martin, Content Director, APAC and looked ahead at the next conference in China.

What can you tell us about Money20/20 China?

The first edition of Money20/20 China is going to take place in Hangzhou, from 14th till 16th of November 2018. As you may know, Hangzhou is the birthplace of Alibaba and Ant Financial, which is why it is an appropriate place to host a conference like this. We first set foot in Asia in Singapore in March 2017, so we are getting to know that market better, and we are slowly infiltrating the fintech communities around Asia-Pacific. The China event will hopefully be of a similar size to our first Asia launch. In terms of the content for the event, there are a few things we focus on.

What topics are going to be covered?

Firstly, there is a focus on lending in China. The lending regulations have changed dramatically in China; at first the market was very open, which led to some companies to grow to massive sizes, but now regulation has stepped up, reviewing the whole industry that will eventually lead to a market consolidation. There are a few players that are absolutely winning, who are looking to IPO in Hong Kong or the US, and they are acquiring the smaller players. We will be covering that value chain and where that landscape is heading to. The government has just announced that the review is going to take another three years, so there will be a constantly changing ecosystem to investigate.

Another focus will be the InsureTech, which is not something that we have focussed on at Money20/20, although we definitely feel there is an appetite for it, globally. However, in China they are ahead of the world. The concepts of micro-insurance, or online insurance are new things that Chinese consumers are already used to, but which are largely unexplored in Europe and the US. Micro-insurance can be sold online for a single car trip or flight. Currently, this type of ‘just-in-case’ insurance is really taking off in China; we’ll have the CEO of ZhongAn speaking on the main stage. ZhongAn was founded by PingAn, Tencent, and Alibaba, and is now the largest insurance company in the world.

Artificial Intelligence will be covered as well, especially since China plans to be the ‘first AI-country in the world’ by 2030. Most of the innovation there seems to be happening in research labs, run by either companies or universities, and we want to bring the leaders in AI from Israel and the US in touch with the leaders in AI from China to get a sense of the level of technology and its implementation. China is the largest fintech market in the world, and in many aspects, they are far ahead of the rest of the world. For example, they already have enterprise blockchain solutions, at scale, in the market, whereas Europe and the US are still in the proof-of-concept phase.

Lastly, we will examine the journey of big tech companies outside of China, especially with regard to regulations. Inside of China they have been able to flourish and it will be interesting to see if they can secure their growth in the rest of South-East Asia, India, or even the US, with a new customer base and differing regulation. We are hoping to get speakers or attendees from the People’s Bank of China and be part of that conversation with global regulators.

What kind of crowd are you expecting?

We are aiming for a good mix of Chinese and international attendees. The whole event will be in both English and Chinese, so every session will be completely accessible for all attendees, and completely integrate the two groups. This is done using excellent translators and the highest level of translation technology, which we are already testing.

About Rebecca Martin

Becca is the Content Director for Asia Pacific, responsible for launching Money20/20 China in Hangzhou and developing the product for Money20/20 Asia in Singapore. She has experience in digital transformation and future tech having previously worked at Pioneers and Founders Forum.